Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare consultant and analyst with 20 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. Contact her at @ziegerhealth on Twitter or visit her site at Zieger Healthcare.

Late last year, the NFL announced that it was using eClinicalWorks’ EMR to standardize their healthcare documentation for players. (Around the same time, the NBA announced that it was implementing Cerner’s EMR.)

Now, we learn that the NFL is gearing up to launch eCW as part of a pilot study of data sharing. It’s also rolling out a program bringing concussion assessment to the field-side.

According to USA Today, the league is distributing iPads to every medical staff member — equipped with X-rays, imaging studies, notes and more — to boost its ongoing efforts to improve assessment of concussions.

All of the iPads rolled out to NFL clinicians will be loaded with X2 software which includes a standard concussion assessment instrument, the Sideline Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT-3). SCAT-3 is the most advanced version available of neurocognitive test used to determine whether a player has a concussion, USA Today reports.

For most teams, the data collected on the deployed iPads will end up being printed and placed in a paper chart.

However, eight teams — the Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, Denver Broncos, Houston Texans, New England Patriots, New York Giants, New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers — are part of a pilot program in which the results collected on the iPad will be sent via Internet into the patient’s EMR. Eventually, if the pilot works as expected, the EMR data will be shifted as needed between all 32 NFL teams.

What makes the new pilot a bit unusual is that there’s apparently some politics involved in sharing medical data across the league.

The players, agents and the NFL Players Association are apparently concerned that when team members are being scouted by other teams in the league, the medical data could potentially be used against them. They’re also concerned as to whether certain health information could work against players in free agency or grievance hearings.

The NFL told USA Today that it’s still working out how it will handle free agent medical records, calling the pilot program a “work in progress.” The league does not intend to use the EMR to share records between teams until the pilot is over.